News Around the Net

The Atlantic has come crawling back to short fiction writers. We knew you would. Now we have to decide whether we're willing to take you back.

Want to read William Faulkner's Nobel Prize speech from 1950? Why wouldn't you? I promise it's not narrated by a mentally challenged six year old. But he might have been drunk.

Nathan Bransford wants to know which book we'd want with us if deserted on a desert island. My answer? Elixir by Hilary Duff. The beautiful, lyrical, heart-wrenching story of whatever the hell it's about.

Annoyed by your lack of creativity? Think more like a seven year old. It works. It's science. Soft science, but science nonetheless.

The long list for the Orange Prize in fiction, a female writer's award, has been announced. Big names include the ubiquitous Hilary Mantel (not Duff), Lorrie Moore and Barbara Kingsolver.

Want friends and conversation? Read War and Peace. It seems to work. It's actually a cool essay. Read it, if you please.

A call to bad poets. We need you.

The Guardian gives us some advice on what not to name your novel. Ten bucks says Dan Brown calls his next novel The Armageddon Code after reading this.

Literary t-shirts for everyone!